2020 is a year of firsts…

It’s the first time streets have been emptied, schools have been closed and planes have been grounded. We’re all staying home to keep ourselves and others safe, and as we do that we’re learning to adjust and do things in very different ways.

For my family this will be the very first time we have spent Easter at home. Usually we head to my sister’s house on a rural block outside Daylesford. Central Victoria is picture perfect at this time of year, bright with Autumn leaves and misty with the whiff of open fires. Every year we have a bush walk (or stroll if I’m to be honest!), grab a coffee somewhere, and we explore the warm and woolly Daylesford trash and treasure market. It’s a lovely place to spend Easter.

But the biggest appeal of our Easter tradition is my sister’s famous Easter Egg Hunt. Aunty Marcie is an Easter legend! Each and every year she sets up the most fabulous cryptic egg hunt. This involves inventing dozens of quirky rhyming clues (peppered with family jokes and references) and then handwriting each onto a strip of paper. Once the kids are asleep she hides each clue, along with a couple of eggs, in one of a series of linked locations. All this effort creates a trail that winds through her house and in and out of her rambling garden. On Easter Sunday morning our children wake up eager to set off and follow the clues, which guide them through the trail, gathering eggs as they go. They adore it - for decades this tradition has kept cousins delighted and busy every Easter Sunday morning.

This year we’ll all be staying in our own homes, and I expect that you will be too.

So… I’ve had an idea, and am sharing the magic of my family’s annual egg hunt with you here. I’ve taken the essence and structure of my sister’s famous Easter Egg hunt and created generalised clues that can be set up indoors in just 3 rooms of your house: a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom.

Hopefully you can tweak this to make it work in your own home for your kids. The ideal way would be to print out the pages below (which are embedded as images) and then follow the instructions to cut up and hide the separate clues around the house as specified. Accompany each with a treat (healthy or otherwise!) if you wish.

If you don’t have access to a printer you could try handwriting the clues. You might even have to get creative and access them on your device while telling the kids they arrived in an email from the Easter Bunny!

If none of these options work from you, then perhaps Aunty Marcie’s exuberance may even inspire you to come up with a hunt of your own. Rhyming and tricky clues, or sweet and simple hints, it really doesn’t matter at all.

What matters this Easter is being together and staying happy and safe.

Hoping this brings a little bit of fun to your day.

Stay safe & well. x